


I'll paint a picture just for you (I'm so conflicted)

by eatyourgreens (saradise48)



Category: The Wayhaven Chronicles (Interactive Fiction)
Genre: F/M, I wanted a kiss but adam said no ma'am I will not, Mutual Pining, adam is emotionally constipated as always what else, set sometime after book 2, slight angst, the gang attends a gala, unresolved ending bc again it's adam what else were you expecting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:15:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26755669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saradise48/pseuds/eatyourgreens
Summary: Unit Bravo has a mission at a gala event in the big city. Lauren is Adam's plus one.
Relationships: Detective/Adam du Mortain, Female Detective/Adam du Mortain
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	I'll paint a picture just for you (I'm so conflicted)

Lauren couldn’t remember the last time she had worn a dress. Sure, she liked to dress up on occasion when the situation called for it at the station, but that was so rare she didn’t own more than one skirt and a single t-shirt dress. And the borderline gown Rebecca had helped her pick out despite her insistence she could do it herself really felt over the top. It was a deep green, slinky silk off-the-shoulder thing that Lauren had only agreed upon because it was the least offensive option. Lauren had been trying to make an effort with her mom, but sometimes she just couldn’t. Dress shopping was one of those times. 

Standing in the hallway just outside the common room in the Warehouse, Lauren was sure the four vampires inside could all hear the way her heart was practically beating out of her chest at the thought of all of them seeing her dressed to the nines for the event they were going to tonight. Rebecca and Tina had insisted she looked beautiful, but Lauren wasn’t so sure as she tugged nervously at the slit that went all the way up to the middle of her thigh. _God what had she been thinking picking this dress?_ Still, the event wasn’t the important thing, they had a mission, so Lauren squared her shoulders despite her self-consciousness and strode through the door. 

The first thing her eyes landed on was Adam on the other side of the room standing in front of the mirror propped on the mantel of the fireplace, his hands fiddling with the forest green tie around his neck that was a perfect match to the shade of her dress. 

Nate noticed her first before she could fully process the rest of that thought, and he welcomed her with a warm smile, as well as a one armed hug. “You look wonderful,” he said, and Felix made his way over to agree. Mason wasn’t there, but Lauren hardly noticed his absence as her eyes locked with Adam’s through the mirror. He tugged once at the lapels of his suit jacket, then spun sharply to face the three of them. 

“Detective,” he said in greeting, and Lauren couldn’t help the small smile she felt forming on her face. 

“Commanding Agent,” she replied as she stepped closer to where he still stood on the other side of the room. Lauren was grateful Nate and Felix must have gotten the hint because they both hung back. She noticed that despite all of Adam’s fidgeting, his tie was still crooked. Without thinking, she reached up to straighten it herself, only realizing how close that brought them together when she heard his sharp intake of breath. The heels she was wearing brought her eyes almost level with his nose. With their proximity, Lauren had to tilt her chin up to meet his eyes. “Sorry,” she said, even as she kept her grip on his tie, because she knew he’d berate her for being anything more than professional any second.

Instead, he lightly grasped her elbow, and Lauren could see the open warmth in his expression. “You look...very...” Before he could continue that train of thought, Rebecca walked in with Mason trailing behind to give them their briefing. 

Adam practically jumped away, falling back to his normal spot at one of the common room’s windows, as Lauren stared into the fire unseeingly. Rebecca was speaking, but Lauren only tuned in at the sound of her name being called. 

“What?” she asked sheepishly. 

Rebecca showed no expression, only repeated herself, “Because we discovered our target was attending this gala so last second, there was an issue securing enough invitations—both real and forgeries.” 

“So are some of us not going then?” Lauren asked, wondering why she was here if that was the case.

“No,” Rebecca responded, pulling three expensive-looking invitations out of her portfolio. She passed one to Nate and one to Mason. “While we were only able to obtain three invitations, two of them included a plus one,” she continued, then handed the last invitation to Adam. “Mason, Felix will be your plus one.” Suddenly, Lauren wasn’t sure she liked where this was headed. “And Lauren will be Adam’s.”

Before she could get a word in or even decide whether this was going to be a good thing or not, Adam was speaking, “Is it not possible I might be on my own? Lau—Detective Greene can be with Nate-”

Ouch, Lauren thought to herself, but at the same time she wasn’t surprised. She avoided looking at anyone, knowing their eyes were all on her after Adam’s not so subtle attempt to rid himself of being her babysitter for the night as his plus one. 

She wasn’t sure if Rebecca’s response made the situation better or worse. “No,” she said, a sharp edge to her voice Lauren was surprised by. She’d never heard her mom talk to Adam like that. “Your names are directly tied to the invitations, so there are no switches or changes happening.”

Lauren chanced a look over at Adam and found him looking completely admonished, a sight she rarely had. His shoulders were practically up around his ears, and she could feel the tension radiating off of him. This was going to be a long night. 

\- 

They took an Agency van to the gala that was taking place downtown, Adam driving and Nate in the front passenger seat. Felix had claimed one of the bucket seats in the second row, and when Lauren had made for the other, Mason had glared at her until she got the hint. So, she was relegated to the very back row of the van on her own, unable to hear the quiet conversations that were going on in front of her and instead stuck watching the traffic go by on the highway lanes around them in silence.

Once they finally got there, a valet greeted them to take the van. Lauren stumbled on the step down to the ground, her heel getting caught in the short train of her dress and she lurched forward, about to fall face first on the cobblestone driveway before she felt someone catch her around the waist. They placed her back on her feet, though their hands lingered, and once Lauren had caught her breath, she looked up and met Adam’s eyes for the second time that night.

This time, though, instead of warmth and a soft green, all she saw was ice and indifference. She pulled away before he could do the same and hurt her more, but she supposed she should have expected he’d find a way to fit his foot further into his mouth. “Let’s get this over with,” he sneered, and begrudgingly offered Lauren his elbow without even so much as a glance in her direction. The rest of Unit Bravo was already well ahead of them, and the van was long gone. Lauren needed to get away from him, so she ignored his arm and practically ran up the stairs to the entrance to the gala. 

“Lauren!” Adam swore quietly, aware that if he yelled he’d draw everyone’s attention to them and most likely blow their cover. He ran after her, taking the stairs two at a time until he caught her at the front doors. Nate was looking between the two of them with concern but Lauren just shook her head and walked in, Adam trailing behind her with their invitation. 

By the time he caught up to her again, she was halfway to the open bar, but he yanked her back by her elbow to an unoccupied alcove beside the dancefloor. “What do you think you’re doing? Are you trying to set a record for the fastest undercover blown?” he barked. Lauren glared at him, pulling her arm back to her side. He seemed to realize as she did that he was still holding on to her and snapped his own hand back to his side too.

“If either of us is going for that record, it’d be you, _Commanding Agent_. The absolute least you could do is pretend you can stand me, considering I am supposed to be your date. But this is the second time you’ve implied working with me is the worst possible punishment for you. I forgot you don’t register anything but anger and apathy, so sorry for trying to encourage you to feel something else every once in a while. Please, just leave me alone, I’ll go bother Nate or something and be a good little charge for you to ignore,” Lauren said, barely holding back her tears. She was so tired of how hot and cold he was when it came to their relationship, and how cutting some of his remarks could be when he wasn’t even trying. 

She forced herself to keep her shoulders back and her head high as she stormed away from him before he could reply, and bypassed the bar for the bathroom down a narrow hallway.

-

After taking a few minutes to give herself a silent pep talk in one of the stalls of the crowded bathroom, Lauren emerged and set off to find the rest of the team. Now that she had calmed down a bit, too, she was able to appreciate the ballroom itself. Almost everything around her was adorned in gold: the ceiling, the walls, even some of the food she could see at the buffet. In contrast to earlier in the Warehouse, she now felt almost underdressed, surrounded by gowns and tuxedos that probably cost more money than she made in a month. 

Thankfully, Nate’s height made him easy to spot in the crowd that was starting to feel overwhelming, and Lauren intercepted him on his way to the bar. She ordered the strongest drink the bartender would make her and shortly after, she was presented with a vodka soda. Trailing after Nate to the table Unit Bravo had claimed for themselves, she shook her head at his question of if things were okay between her and Adam.

“He’s an ass, so I told him to do his thing and I’d take care of myself for the night.”

“I can’t imagine he took that well,” Nate said with a small smile, knowing that leaving Lauren alone was the last thing on Adam’s mind, even if his friend would never admit it. 

“I wouldn’t know, I left right after.” In response, Nate pointed with the hand not holding his drink toward the same alcove Lauren had been in and where Adam still was standing. The look on his face was _murderous_ as his gaze flicked over every partygoer that walked past him, looking for their target. “That’s not my problem.”

Nate nodded as they reached the table where Felix and Mason were bickering, Mason fidgeting absently with his lighter. “You may be right,” Nate agreed as he placed a hand on Lauren’s shoulder to stop her from sitting down, “but I believe you may be the only one who can fix it nonetheless.”

“I-” Lauren started, glancing back at Mason and Felix who were now openly staring at them, probably having heard everything they said despite the increasing noise of the party around them. She swallowed down the rest of her drink, placing the empty glass on the table. “No, I really doubt that, Nate. I’m going to go get another one. I’ll be on the lookout.”

-

Another vodka soda later, Lauren was seated at their table with Felix on her left and Nate on her right. She tapped absently at a game on her phone, her chin balanced on her other hand, bored out of her mind. Rebecca had said their goal for the night was to apprehend the target with minimal fanfare and resistance, which was difficult only because she hadn’t _shown up_ in the first place. 

Lauren’s feet ached from walking around the perimeter of the ballroom for the past hour and a half on the lookout while she nursed her second drink, but came up with absolutely nothing. She wasn’t even sure what the gala was supposed to be for, as most of the people seemed content to just stay out on the dance floor for the entire event. 

She hadn’t seen Adam for the better part of an hour. He hadn’t stayed in his secluded alcove much longer after she’d found Nate, because the next time she’d glanced over to the spot, he was gone. She’d seen a flash of his blond hair briefly through the crowds a few minutes after noticing he was missing, but nothing after that. Mason said it was nothing to worry about when she pointed it out, so she let it go. As much as he insisted on the contrary, it didn’t seem like Adam was too concerned with her own personal safety, considering how easily he’d cast her aside, so she did the same. 

Felix offered to get food with her from the buffet, but Lauren just shrugged him off and focused back on her phone. Out of the corner of her eye, a second later, though, she saw Adam approaching the four of them slowly. His hands were tucked deep into his pants pockets and he had an almost sheepish expression on his face—something that Lauren had never seen before. She stared blankly at his face as he continued to avoid eye contact until he came around and was standing behind her chair, offering her his hand.

“What?” she asked, when she realized she’d missed the question he’d apparently asked her. Everyone’s attention was on her, and she felt herself blush. 

“I said, would you like to dance?” he repeated, his expression shifting to uncertainty—something else Lauren had never seen—but his hand still hovered in the space between them, waiting and unwavering. _What the hell was going on?_ she wondered. It was like Adam could read her mind, and wanted to quash her every thought about them making progress tonight: “I believe we’ll have a better vantage point on the dance floor to see in the crowd and potentially find our target.”

Lauren’s shoulders slumped and she could feel the sympathetic looks she was getting from both Felix and Nate on either side of her. Against her better judgement, she still stood and grasped Adam’s outstretched hand, gesturing for him to lead them to the dance floor. “Let’s go.”

To say it was awkward would be the biggest understatement of Lauren’s life. A slow song was starting up right as they made it to the edge of the parquet floor. It seemed Adam hadn’t thought about what would happen if he got this far considering he seemed so apprehensive to place his free hand at her side. 

“You can’t even pretend to like me long enough for one dance, huh?” she asked him because she couldn’t help herself. 

“I promise you it’s not that,” Adam mumbled. He still avoided looking her in the eye, but his hand settled more confidently on her waist. 

“Sometimes I really wonder how you can be so dense, especially considering how I haven’t even tried to hide how I feel,” Lauren said, letting him guide them around in slow circles between other couples. _How had their target still not arrived yet?_

“I’d hardly consider your actions obvious, Detective. Besides, I thought we agreed we would keep things as professionals only.”

Lauren scoffed, peering between other guests’ heads before glancing back up at Adam to find him looking at her already. “If you think the way I treat you is exclusively professional you’re delusional. And I never agreed to that when you suggested it anyway. Do you really not see it?”

“I’m not sure what you want me to say.”

“Anything,” Lauren insisted, breathless all of a sudden as she missed a step and brought their faces only inches apart. She had stepped on his toes but Adam didn’t so much as flinch, his eyes locked onto hers. “Please, just don’t shut down on me everytime we take a step forward.”

“I will try my best. For you,” Adam replied, and Lauren stamped down the wide grin that was trying to fight its way onto her face. Instead, she smiled softly at him as the song drew to a close. His hands lingered on her for an extra beat before he pulled away fully and took a short step back. Lauren expected him to stomp away again to find a dark corner to keep vigil in like earlier, but he walked her back to their table half a step behind her. He shocked her even further when he took a seat on Nate’s other side. 

“It’s been two and a half hours by now, can we call this a bust already and leave?” Mason questioned, tearing the paper napkin in his hands to shreds. “Isn’t the event almost over by now anyway? She should have been here.”

Adam sighed and turned to Nate. The pair exchanged a few glances back and forth, a silent conversation Lauren still wasn’t able to decipher, before they both nodded. 

They all stood at once, and Adam approached Lauren again to offer her his arm. She stared between his face and his elbow, confused, so he said, “We are meant to be a couple tonight, right, Lauren?” with a small, conspiratorial grin. His eyes were sparkling with the light from the chandelier that hung from the ceiling. Lauren was baffled. 

But she tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow without so much as a second thought.


End file.
